Topic: Mac mini

As was the case last year, several Apple authorized resellers are getting a jump-start on the 2009 holiday shopping season by launching early Black Friday sales that offer up to $220 off Mac desktops and $250 off Mac notebooks. [Updated Nov 26th with steep MacConnection price cuts.]

First on AppleInsider: A trio of online advertisements that appear to have been published prematurely by one of Apple's international online stores suggest it's only a matter of days before the Mac maker takes the wraps off of new families of ultra-thin iMacs, lighter & thinner plastic MacBooks, and more affordable Mac minis [Updated with other countries].

As reports of forthcoming hardware refreshes continue to mount, Apple has braced its certified resellers for unusually long shipping times of two to three weeks for both models of its minute Mac mini desktop systems.

Apple this week began informing its direct sales channels that several of its desktop-based Mac offerings have entered a period of constraint, further hinting that Mac hardware updates are on the horizon. [Updated with additional info on Mac mini.]

Apple's latest Mac mini continues to demonstrate the company's capacity to develop personal computers that are both smaller and more attractive than those of its rivals, but achieving its sleeker design footprint comes at the expense of razor-thin profit margins, a new tear-down cost analysis reveals.

Hoping to persuade possible Mac buyers that Apple charges an arbitrary "tax" for its computers, Microsoft has paid one analyst to create a report that portrays Windows PCs as less expensive -- even if it has to artificially pad the Mac's price and hide Windows' costs to get there.

Apple appears to be distributing a new firmware update that will attempt to address flickering and blank video issues on the latest generation of MiniDisplay Port-equipped Macs connected to external displays using the company's Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter.

Apple's new Mac mini can be taken apart in fifteen steps with an easy-to-follow, photo-rich instruction guide from a third-party solutions provider, which has also announced a do-it-yourself upgrade kit to replace the standard storage and optical drives with two 500 GB hard drives.

Apple's new Mac mini is still easy to pry open with a putty knife and features some internal component rearrangement while the new iMac sports a slimmer, more refined pedestal and some other tweaks, as two sets of unboxing and comparison shots reveal.

While most are familiar with Apple's desktop overhaul, a number of important details have slipped through the cracks -- including confirmation that Apple is receiving access to Intel's next-generation Xeon processors ahead of schedule.

As part of its complete desktop revamp Tuesday, Apple introduced a pair of new 2.0GHz Mac minis that deliver up to five times better graphics performance through the same NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics used in the company's latest family of unibody MacBooks.

Apple at 8:30 a.m. Eastern is expected to revamp its entire desktop line, including the Mac Pro, while also introducing new versions of its AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule products, a leaked parts and specifications list reveals.